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I am excited about the opportunity to be one of four featured speakers and to share my family’s eldercare story from my book Singing Solo: In Search of a Voice for Mom at the CARING FOR A PERSON WITH MEMORY LOSS CONFERENCE, Saturday, May 30, 2015, at the University of Minnesota Mayo Memorial Auditorium.

This one-day conference is a great event that offers information, support, and education for adult children, spouses, parents, community care providers, and other individuals concerned with caring for persons with memory loss.

There is no cost for the conference for participants who do not want contact hours, but preregistration is required.

Please share this information with friends/family members who are concerned about memory issues with their loved ones.

The biggest news is that my 3rd book, the story of my husband’s youth during WWII in Indonesia, is coming out soon. Darkness in Paradise will be available within the next month or so. It is being published by Archway Publishing and the final galley has just been reviewed.

I have been busy with life stories and have recently completed several for hospice patients. I spoke recently to the Pastoral Care Academy in Stillwater about writing the hospice life stories, and after a quick tally, discovered that I’ve done more than 60 of them over the past five years. I am thrilled to be able to provide this service for the families of Lakeview hospice patients.

I will be appearing soon on SPNN TV with Nadia Giordana to talk about the importance of writing our memoirs, as well as sharing some ideas of how to do it. Capturing memories is important to me. I believe that we need to remember our past to do well in the present. The past is the root in all of us, and it’s important for the younger generation to understand where we came from.

Memories of Lake Elmo, published in 2013, is the history of a small Minnesota town, written as the result of more than 120 interviews of local residents. I have done a number of speaking events with neighborhood groups about the book since then, with some still scheduled.

The following is an excerpt from the book: Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

–Confucius

Michelle Dustin

One night in March 2011, when I was lying in bed, this idea just came to me. Excited, I jumped out of bed and ran to grab my laptop. I hurriedly typed an email to Laurel Hansen, the business director at Arc’s Value Village Thrift Stores. I told her about my idea, and asked if she would meet with me.

Laurel agreed to meet for coffee. Before our meeting, I did some research and put together a PowerPoint presentation explaining my idea, and why I was certain it would be a success. I felt such confidence and excitement, I didn’t even think about being nervous.

As we sat across the table from one another sipping piping hot coffee, I said to her, “High-end department stores offer free personal shopping services. Why can’t Arc’s Value Village offer this same type of VIP experience to its customers?”

I told her about the reaction I often received when I’d tell people about my thrift-store finds. The response was always the same, “I wish I could find things like that at thrift stores; I just don’t have the eye for it,” or “I get so overwhelmed at the thrift store, I just don’t have the patience to sift through all those racks.”

The PowerPoint presentation outlined how a personal shopping service could increase sales, drive brand loyalty, cultivate new customers, and set Value Village apart from other thrift stores. On the final slide, I listed several reasons why, I, Michelle Dustin, an avid thrift store shopper, was the one for the job. The last bullet point said simply, “She’s got the Gift of Thrift!”

Initially I was offered a six-month contract to test the viability of the service. Value Village sent out a press release promoting their complementary new offering. Esme Murphy of WCCO was one of the first to report on this novel thrift service. She scheduled an appointment and it was evident how amazed she was by the head-to-toe outfits hand selected just for her, the designer labels, and the rock bottom prices. Her overwhelming enthusiasm was worth its weight in gold. Moments after her story aired on WCCO, my email inbox quickly filled up, and my appointment schedule was booked up for months.

Lucky me! I now have a full-time career in which I am inspired, excited, and challenged every day. When I reflect on the path that’s gotten me here, I am reminded of a quote by the clothing designer, Diane Von Furstenberg, “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I always knew the woman I wanted to be.”

The woman I wanted to be is one who will follow her instincts, take risks, and blaze trails where there are none.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I always knew the woman I wanted to be.”

The following is an excerpt from Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women:

To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep stepping.

Chinese Proverb

Deborah Lysholm

“Deborah Lysholm, a dancer, prayed she could outrun the bullets as her husband chased her outside on a blustery April night in 1992 aiming a rifle at her. After 23 years of a terror filled marriage, she knew she had to leave him–no matter how much she feared and believed his threats that he would find her and kill her. Instead of becoming a statistic, she summoned unbelievable courage to start a new life for herself and her college-aged daughter, Kristen.”

excerpt from Deborah’s book Dancing To My Heartbeat

Dance has been an integral part of my life since childhood, and with each passing year, became increasingly instrumental in defining who I am. Striving for a career in dance, more specifically building a performing arts center, was my main focus.

Since things from the heart speak loudest to me, I wanted and needed a career that summon absolute zeal.

My dream flourished when my daughter and I opened our own performing arts center, Heartbeat Studios January 1998. I came alive at that moment because a new life was truly beginning for both of us. Making a living doing what I love to do is simply exhilarating!

In January 2013, Heartbeat celebrated its fifteenth anniversary. [Some] Milestones in those years include:

Being selected as the only dance studio to travel to London to represent the United States at the 400th anniversary celebration of settlers sailing from Kent, England to Jamestown, Virginia.

Developing a successful dance/movement program for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD.

Define what success is to you. Pull the curtain back to see what success will look like. … Always do your homework to ensure every step or decision you make is done with eyes wide open. Embrace what you do, not only with pride, but with undying passion. Love the ride.

Do not be afraid to ask questions or seek a mentor. Talk to many people and filter out what you know will be useful to your endeavor.

Being fearless and having the ability to dream big will set things in motion.

Be a good listener, even more than a good talker because the more information you take in, the more you will be prepared to pursue your goal.

Key to Success:

Not only have a clear vision of where you are headed, but also the humility to acknowledge there is no end to the “achieving success” process because the journey might take you in directions you never thought possible.

This is an excerpt from Unlocking The Secrets of Successful Women (story collector, Joan Kennedy)

“I knew I would be a writer from an early age, and I sold my first article for a dollar at the age of nine. Throughout my adolescence and well into my twenties, I wrote articles for a host of well-known publications: Scholastic, Teen, Highlights, later Redbook, Esquire, Ladies Home Journal. I discovered if I researched and wrote an article with no timeframe attached to it, any newspaper would jump on it, rather than have a reporter do all the legwork. Plus by selling to newspapers around the country, I kept the copyright and the byline and could sell the same article several times over. I wrote stories about the first Christmas tree, the tradition on Christmas cards, the History of St. Patrick’s Day, why fireworks and the Fourth of July are so closely related and many, many more.

I went on to write thirty to forty TV scripts for The Bob Newhart Show, All in the Family, One Day at a Time, and Rhoda. But of those thirty plus TV scripts, I only sold seven or eight. If Redbook rejected an article I had submitted, dozens of other publications would accept my story. But with TV, you simply can’t take a script for All in the Family and re-write it for MASH.

I discovered advertising –or, rather, it discovered me. I was freelancing at a radio station when they asked me to do a public Service Announcement for an anti-drug campaign, which, meant I wouldn’t get paid.I said sure. I did, and coined the phrase, “Don’t be a dope about dope,” which became, “Why do you think they call it dope?” It was parodied on Saturday Night Live, and LL Cool J wrote a song titled, “Why Do You Think They Call it Dope?” You never know where an opportunity can lead.

I went on to work for some top agencies in Chicago. I994, I decided to open my own freelance company. I returned to TV and decided to specialize in Direct Response, creating one-or two minute TV spots featuring an 800#. I was blessed to cut my teeth with the Iconic Nordic Track brand. I have written four George Foreman Grill Shows, countless more for Sleep Number bed, Oreck, AARP, Sharper Image, Tony Robbins, Sony Pictures and many, many more. I wrote the first-ever infomercial for Deepak Chopra, and other shows for Olivia Newton John, Joan Lunden, Kathy Lee Gifford, Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul), and a dozen more celebrities.

The lesson here is to never pass up an opportunity. If you’re an up-and comer, take on occasional spec work, ask for copies of the published or broadcast work, and always, always ask for written testimonials. I have dozens on my website, and even some on my client reel.

Think of writing as something to help you earn a living. Research what free-lance writers are charging on an hourly or per-project basis, and build your professional portfolio to showcase your (paid) talents.

Let’s say you love decorating or touring houses. Did you know you can get paid for writing up creative house descriptions for real estate companies? Are you a foodie or just someone who enjoys gourmet food? Get paid for writing restaurant menus or reviews – enjoy some of the best meals in your town. Are you spiritual? Many ministers and pastors pay for someone to write their sermons, or a column in the church newspaper. There’s also a growing market in writing blogs. Many CEOs, artists, speakers, and other people, simply don’t have the time to write their own blog, so they give a freelance writer a list of topics and pay to have them penned.

What are you passionate about? Find it, follow it and do it, and you’ll never regret it.

The key to success: Success to me was and is doing something I love to do and get paid.

This quote is one of the most powerful I’ve read on success – especially for women. We can all own success despite the challenges of our past, loss, setbacks or failures. Those things don’t … Continue reading →

From Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women: “Everybody builds a dream in their lifetime. You’re either going to build your dream, or somebody else’s. So build your own” – Christopher LaBrec I spent a year interviewing and getting to know … Continue reading →

This post is excerpted from Joan Kennedy’s Positive Support Letter 1996:

There is a Native American fable about a youth who took an egg from an eagle’s nest and put it in a chicken yard. The egg hatched and the eagle grew up among the chickens, pecking in the ground for food just as they did, scratching in the dust as he watched the others do.

One day he looked up and saw an eagle flying high above him.

He felt his wings tremble and said to one of the chickens, “I wish I could do that.”

“Don’t be a fool,” the chicken said. “Only an eagle can fly so high.”

Feeling ashamed of his longing, the eagle went back to scratching in the dirt — never again to question what he believed to be his assigned place on earth.

What if the eagle had refused to allow someone else to define his potential? Suppose he had sensed his uniqueness, broke free, opened his powerful wings, and soared into the heavens?

Ask yourself the question: “Do I allow others to define my potential, or determine what is possible for me?”

When we put limitations on ourselves, we don’t allow ourselves into the boundless realm of creative thought, where we can envision a wonderful experience, a better job, a larger income. Our pattern of thought binds us to lives of limitation and mediocrity.

Before any real change can take place in your life, you need to search within yourself, become aware of who you are and of what is possible. You will never know who you really are until you deal with the person you think you are.

It’s all a matter of perception.

It’s an accepted fact that the limitations we feel, the goals we set for ourselves, our whole approach to life, is strongly influenced by the image we have of ourselves. And so, before you can take your rightful place, you must alter the perception you have of yourself because anything you deeply believe in, is your truth.

To change yourself or your conditions, change your beliefs about them. You can begin to acquire a high self-image when you accept your strengths as well as your weaknesses. Creating a new self-image will release your talents and abilities. With a high regard for yourself, not only will you feel more confident, but you will feel free to be yourself…and to express yourself totally.

In Gary Zukav’s book on the subject of new physics, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, he says,

“Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality.”

We need to always be aware of what we believe to be true, because through our beliefs, our reality is formed.

Remember, the moment you alter your perception of yourself and your future, both you and your future begin to change.

P.S. “If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” –Thomas A. Edison

So, what have you been telling yourself today? Have you fretted about your future, nagged yourself about your past, have you chided yourself for making a mistake, the wrong decision, or have you praised and supported yourself?

If you don’t remember what you said to yourself today, you’re not alone. There are things we say to ourselves that we are not even aware , because this self-talk is so familiar to us.

The greatest discovery we can make is to learn of the wisdom and power that dwells within us, it enables us to overcome problems and achieve more in life. We are all equipped with the necessary elements, qualities and potential to make our lives the one we truly want to live.

This wisdom and power will bring you more love, more success, more money, more confidence, more happiness and more peace of mind.

But it can also bring you more fialure, more frustration, more fear and more self-doubt.

It only waits for you to tell it what to do.

Here’s the good part, the experts tell us this Power is so subject to our suggestions that in affirmations we have a tool of extraordinary power, we can raise our self image, thereby raising our potential–we can literally change the course of our lives by changing our inner dialogue.

Change what’s happening inside, to create a whole new world for yourself outside.